The series of encounters entitled “The travelling Genius : Italians Art, humanities, science … in the world”, is a space for discussion and cultural dialogue that the Italian Cultural Institute has developed especially for young Italians in world. Italians who, beyond any orientation, are the bearers of knowledge accumulated in Italy and diffuse the following, even without their knowledge, a provision or a vocation of ancient origin: the generous exchange of culture, comforted by a keen sense of human comprehension.
Thursday April 6, 2017 – 6:30pm
Istituto Italiano di Cultura, 1200 Dr. Penfield,
Free admission.
The Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth and sixteenth century is a multifaceted enigma, a period where the sensual pagan allegories of Botticelli and Titian are interwoven with Savonarola’s bonfires of the vanities of and the looming influence of the Malleus Maleficarum. The humanist rediscovery of classical Greek philosophy, especially Plato, opens a completely new chapter in the history of Christian spirituality. What is the value of ancient knowledge? How can we interpret the customs, the practices, and the religions of pre-Christian civilization? Can one integrate certain aspects of this pagan askesis with the Catholic religion or one must rather reject it, looking for a more direct contact with the mystical experience of the early members of the Church? Starting from the Christian-hermetic visions of humanist Marsilio Ficino to Gianfrancesco Pico’s demonization of the Olympians, many intellectuals of the time have tried to give an answer to these questions, continuously exploring philosophical and religious experiences in search of the perfect harmony (or opposition) between the ancient religions and Christianity. During this brief conference, we will try to introduce some of the issues of the philosophical/theological dialogue between the Christian Renaissance and ancient paganism, introducing the protagonists of this fundamental debate on the interpretation of one of the most important religious and spiritual alterities of the time.
Marco Piana is a Ph.D. candidate in Italian Studies at McGill University, department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. His field of research focuses on the literary representation of Otherness and religious identity in Early Modern Italy, with special regard to Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola and the Italian Neoplatonic revival. He is currently a research assistant on the project “Equality and superiority in Renaissance and Early Modern pro-woman treatises” led by Marguerite Deslauriers and Laura Praelipcean, and a Graduate Studies Associate to the project Early Modern Conversions led by Paul Yachnin and Stephen Wittek.
http://querelle.ca/
http://earlymodernconversions.com/
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